PLNU News

PLNU student and children with Down syndrome and their families celebrated Easter early on Tuesday.

DS Action, a San Diego Down syndrome advocacy group, along with PLNU's School of Education, Department of Family & Consumer Sciences, and Department of Kinesiology, helped put on the DS Action Easter Egg Hunt and Parents Reception on the Alumni House Lawn. Children and their families participated in games and activities, an Easter egg hunt, and a visit from the Easter bunny. Each child was paired with a PLNU student-volunteer, "special friends" who spent time playing with the children while families enjoyed the reception.

Friday is Earth Day. PLNU observes the spirit of Earth Day all through the year, with the diverse activities during the annual Creation Care Week in the fall and Bike the Jam once a month. On Friday, PLNU will be joining in on the observance and festivities by holding a special edition Bike The Jam, where participants will get free coffee if they bring a reusable mug.

PLNU has been ramping up efforts to care for creation for years. Residence halls produce limited waste and are energy efficient. In 2010, Finch Hall was completely remodeled with sustainability in mind, adding recycled-content carpet, a filtered water filling station, a sink-to-toilet grey water recycling system, and natural lighting.

The Green Fund, a student-initiated fee of five dollars per semester, was set up to increase funds for energy, water, and resource conservation efforts on campus. It provides about $25,000 for projects each year. In 2010, the fund provided for a bike service station, more fruit trees on campus, and a community garden expansion.

The Octopus Garden, affectionately named by its founders at Students for Environmental Awareness (SEA), offers plots for green or brown-thumbed students, faculty, and staff to try their hands at tending a small crop. Sprouting this season are quinoa, corn, lettuce, grapes, and carrots, just to name a few.

PLNU students also have the opportunity to engage more deeply in the academic side of creation care by signing up for PLNU’s sustainability studies minor, which began in fall 2010. The interdisciplinary program brings together perspectives from business, biology, theology, sociology, and other areas.

Other creation care highlights from around campus include:

A tray-less cafeteria that ensures 30 percent of its food is from local sources

Composting of cafeteria waste

A growing solar panel system that will provide more than 40 percent of the university’s peak period electricity consumption when completed

Hydration stations around campus where reusable water bottles can be refilled for free

Water-saving shower switches that allow water flow to be reduced by 75 percent while maintaining water temperature

Waterless urinals and low-flow or dual-flush toilets that save approximately 40,000 gallons of water a year

Rip, Shred, Tear. To some, these three words may sound like a papier-mâché project. For one PLNU junior, though, these three words have evolved into a project that has received global recognition. Madison Dyer, a film studies major, spent his summer working on a 30-minute surf documentary, Rip Shred Tear, in conjunction with San Diego’s Captain Fin Surf Company and Hurley.

A standard surf movie takes about a year to film. Dyer and his crew took a different approach by completing all filming in a two-month period.

“I started shooting in May and we had it all wrapped up by August,” said Dyer. “The whole point of it was to showcase surfing and the long board alternative community in that summer.”

Dyer was in charge of shooting and editing the film. Although he had some creative input, the concept alone came from Mitch Abshere, Captain Fin Surf Company owner. With over 20 hours of footage, a lot of behind the scenes work had to be done to complete a successful project.

“It was a really good learning experience—especially for the other side of shooting,” said Dyer. “The scheduling and contacting people was the part I haven’t dealt with, so it was a really good experience.”

The film has had its premieres across the globe, most notably three in Japan with distribution by Hurley. With a country geared towards surfing and ‘60s culture, most surfing companies have a Japan branch.

Although Dyer spent his summer in the realm of surfing, he has turned his interests toward the more sophisticated side of film in marketing. As a PLNU marketing intern, Dyer has been responsible for making mini documentaries and commercials that focus on alumni profiles, departmental profiles, professors, business events and even television commercials.

“Ideally, the stuff I am interested is mostly short stuff, commercials, music videos,” said Dyer. “I’ve made a few connections with people in the commercial world, and hope I can try to get away from surfing and get to a strictly professional marketing base.”

As for personal side projects, Dyer has a couple in the works. After a successful completion of last year’s short film, Rungs, which won best film at PLNU’s film festival, Dyer is embarking on another short adventure. The film is being produced in one of the film production courses, and focuses on a guy who secretly cheats on his girlfriend and accidentally sends a text that might get him in trouble. In an attempt to save himself, he tries to erase the text message while a close friend documents the whole process. In addition to this, he will also be working with Captain Fin Surf Company on another surf project that will be pitched to Fuel TV.

It is evident that Dyer possesses the drive and talent to be successful. Although he has already gained some notoriety for his work, he says that his ethic has started with class projects. They have inspired him to produce quality work and continue to drive him to expand his mind creatively.

“Having professors and peers that have pushed you to do stuff out of your comfort zone--as repetitive as a lot of school projects can get--really pushes you to work under a deadline and learn the whole process,” said Dyer. “Really, I have both of those to be thankful for.”

At PLNU, tuition currently covers only 77.5 percent of the education costs for a PLNU student. In fact, never in the history of our university has tuition covered the entire cost of a student’s education. Who's paying the other 22.5 percent? PLNU receives generous financial support, both large and small, from alumni contributions, donor gifts, corporate sponsorships, and foundations.

For example, if current tuition is $26,500, and a student pays only 77.5 percent of his or her education costs, he or she is getting an unknown scholarship of about $20,000 over the course of four years.

On March 25, PLNU students will celebrate Tuition Freedom Day. The PLNU Alumni Association took the initiative to ASB leaders and Student Congress two years ago. All three have collaborated on designing this event for three years. On this day, PLNU celebrates and thanks the alumni, donors, corporations, and foundations who provide support for our current and future students.

Students will write thank you notes, get a Tuition Freedom Day t-shirt, enjoy free coffee and pastries, and listen to live entertainment.

The PLNU speech and debate team’s competitive intercollegiate season has now drawn to a close with their last tournament. But the team went out with a bang at National Parliamentary Debate Nationals, hosted by Colorado College in Colorado Springs March 16 - 20.

The team ended the year as the third highest ranked school in the yearlong nationwide sweepstakes. There were hundreds of colleges and universities competing from across the nation, all in one large division at NPDA, including schools like UCLA, Cal Berkeley, and the United States Air Force Academy.

At the NPDA National Championships, the six teams representing PLNU were ranked the 8th top program at the national championship tournament sweepstakes, a ranking that counts your top four teams against all the other program’s top four teams at the tournament, all competing within one senior division. PLNU has had many strong teams in the past that have not even cracked the top ten awards in that category. PLNU's 1999 team won the top spot in this particular category.

Senior and team co-president Daniel Nadal was one of only three debaters in the nation selected to this year’s All American Parliamentary Debate Team. Nadal was awarded this honor based on his forensics success, high academics, and service to the community. He is now choosing which law school to attend next year.

The team of Ashley Nuckels and Ian Sharpels advanced to the double Octa Final round, and the team of Daniel Nadal and James Wilson advanced to the Triple Octa Final round. Their winning records in preliminary rounds allowed them to participate in the elimination rounds. Three of PLNU's other teams missed that opportunity by only one round.